kath_rsa said:
Hi experts... I have another piccie of a mushroom that I believe is of the Microglossum family. It also does not appear in my SA mushroom guides. I think is it really a lovely looking fungus.. we found it in newly formed rockpools filled up when a spring started springing out of the mountain after a major summer rainfall.
As I said.. just posted for the beauty... any further info gratefully accepted!
Regards
Kath
Kath,
Something seems to have gone wrong with this as no thumbnail comes up on screen. As these forums don't work perfectly in a couple of small details with Firefox, my browser of choice, I also tried it with Internet Explorer. Both browsers give dire warnings if I click on the link.
However, I tried saving the link directly to disk, found I had a claimed php file, checked it in Notepad and decided it looked like a jpeg, renamed it as a jpeg, and found I indeed have the beautiful photograph you intended to post.
My determination to see the image was because you mentioned
Microglossum - a key interest of mine.
As it happens, your fungus is not a
Microglossum but is another genus that, rightly or wrongly, is placed in the same family (Geoglossaceae).
Your fungus is a 'Bog Beacon' - a
Mitrula species. (
Mitrula in the strict sense, not including many fungi formerly placed in the genus.)
To my British eyes it looks exactly like
Mitrula paludosa, a fairly common fungus with us in similar (acidic) situations, growing underwater on dead leaves and with the fruit bodies emerging above water in the spring, sometimes in great numbers. However, I will not firmly name it as that as
M. paludosa is part of a world complex of very similar species that can only be separated by careful examination of the spores. I am not sure which ones you have in S.Africa and as it is 3am here, I shall not go looking anything up right now.
I shall try re-posting your image (which I have re-saved with Photoshop to avoid any complications). I may also send you a private message when I am more awake, as I am very interested in this.
Alan
